Int.J.Curr.Res.Aca.Rev.2015; 3(6):246-258

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Introduction

Butterflies are generally regarded as one of

the best taxonomically studied group of

insects. In world more than 28,000 species

of butterflies, with about 80 percent found in

tropical regions. The order Lepidoptera,

which constitutes of the majority of visually

appealing insects such as the butterflies and

moths have 125,000 to 150,000 described

species (Gullan and Cranston, 2009).

Butterflies being one of the most studied

groups of insects have been systematically

documented since the 18th century

(Heppner, 1998).Butterflies are beautiful,

flying insects with large scaly wings. Like

all insects, they have six jointed legs, 3 body

parts, a pair of antennae, compound eyes,

and an exoskeleton. The three body parts are

the head, thorax and abdomen (the tail

Diversity of Butterfly in Contai and its adjoining areas Purba Medinipur,

West Bengal, India

Kallol Hajra1*

, Prasanta Mandal2, Suman Jana

3, Sudeshna Jana

4 and Asim Sahoo

4

1Department Zoology P. K.College, Contai, West Bengal, India

2Department Zoology, Ramnagar College, Depal, West Bengal, India

3Department Zoology, Sitananda College, Nandigram, West Bengal, India

4Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, India

*Corresponding author

A B S T R A C T Butterflies are certainly the most popular insects along with bees and ants.

Their popularity is largely due to their appearance, especially their glorious

colours. Butterflies and moths belong to the insect order Lepidoptera. They can distinguish from all other insects by having their delicate wings covered

with scales. Butterflies are one of the most important assemblages of insects

that act as biodiversity indicators as well as nature’s gardeners. Due to habitat

destruction and unscientific management of natural resources, diversity of Butterflies gradually decreased and their survival rate under the threat. A total

46 species were observed, out of which 10 species belonging to FAMILY

PIERIDAE, 6 species were belonging to FAMILY PAPILIONIDAE, 16 species were belonging to FAMILY NYMPHALIDAE AND 12 SPECIES

BELONGING TO Family LYCAENIDAE and 2 species belonging to Family

HESPERIDAE during March 2014-April 2015 in the Contai and its adjoining area area.

KEYWORDS

Diversity of

Butterfly,

Lepidoptera, Contai,

West Bengal,

India

International Journal of Current Research and Academic Review

ISSN: 2347-3215 Volume 3 Number 6 (June-2015) pp. 246-258

www.ijcrar.com

Int.J.Curr.Res.Aca.Rev.2015; 3(6):246-258

247

end). The butterfly's body is covered by tiny

sensory hairs. The four wings and the six

legs of the butterfly are attached to the

thorax. The thorax contains the muscles that

make the legs and wings move. Butterflies

are found all over the world and in all types

of environments: hot and cold, dry and

moist, at sea level and high in the

mountains. Most butterfly species, however,

are found in tropical areas, especially

tropical rainforests. Many butterflies migrate

in order to avoid adverse environmental

conditions (like cold weather). Butterfly

migration is not well understood. In Purba

Medinipur District specially to Contai and

its adjoining areas, the butterfly diversity is

first time reported in this paper. In this

present paper morphological features, local

name, common name, scientific name, time

of occurrence, are described and also

mentioned the cause of decline.

Materials and Methods

Study site

Contai/ Kanthi is a small town, situated near

the coastal area of Purba Medinipur district.

The distance from Kolkata to Kanthi is

150km. The latitude and longitude of study

site is 21050’N and 87048’ E. In this town

the authors selected three study sites namely

Monoharchak , Baksispur and Campus of

P.K.College, Contai.

Collection of Data

The study was started during the period

from March-2014 to April 2015.The study

sites were monitored in every month in

study period with minimum 1-3 hrs per day.

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248

Actually three study sites were monitored

per day from morning 8 a.m to till 10 am.

and further 2 p.m to 4p.m. We selected

several habitats such as road sides, different

fruit gardens(mango, banana, guava),public

places, long line bank of canal where host

plants of some butterflies were present.

Collection of butterflies mainly done by

hand picking and photographic

documentation. The collections were done

in four seasons namely summer, monsoon,

post-monsoon and in winter.

As the butterflies are very delicate in nature

and therefore its handling is also done very

carefully after collection. Some collected

specimens were preserved in the college

museum by using naphthalene for the

protection against insect pest and fungal

attack. The butterflies were identified by

using various filed guides and other

available literature (Sathyamurthy, 1994;

Kunte, 2000; Antram, 2002). Species

classification and scientific names are given

as per Varshney (1994, 1997). The observed

butterflies or time of occurrence in three

study sites were categorized in five

categorizes on the basis of their abundance

such as VC (very common), C (common),

NR (not rare), R (rare) and VR (very rare).

The list of observed Butterflies are listed bellow

FAMILY: PIERIDAE

1 COMMON NAME Mottled Emigrant

Local name Chitpaira

Scientific Name Catopsilia pyranthe (Linnaeus)

Characters The upper side is dull white and the underside is finely

striated with light brown or dark grey.

Status Very Common

Occurance S, M, PM, W

2 COMMON NAME Common Grass Yellow

Local name Holud

Scientific Name Eurema hecabe (Linnaeus)

Characters Bright yellow with black borders on the upperside of its

wings.

Status Very Common

Occurance S, M, PM

3 COMMON NAME Common Wanderer/ Indian Wanderer

Local name Tallar

Scientific Name Pareronia hippia

Characters Sky-blue (sky blue) or bluish white with black markings.

Status Not Rare

Occurance S, M, PM

4 COMMON NAME Common Gull

Local name Kuchila

Scientific Name Cepora nerissa (Fabricius)

Characters Upper part white with black border from apex and

Under surface is pale yellow to bright yellow with

darkened veins.

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Status Abundant

Occurance M,PM,W

5 COMMON NAME Common Emigrant

Local name Pairachali

Scientific Name Catopsilia pomona (Fabricius)

Characters Male pale yellow to greenish yellow with black

markings

Status C

Occurance S, M, PM, W

6 COMMON NAME Psyche

Local name Furus

Scientific Name Leptosia nina (Fabricius)

Characters White with black apex and a median sized black spot at

the fore wing.

Status VC

Occurance S, PM, W

7 COMMON NAME Pioneer or Cape White

Local name Chikari

Scientific Name Anapheis aurota (Fabricius)

Characters White and yellow with black markings and a distinct

"hockey-stick" mark at the front margin of the fore

wings.

Status VC

Occurance S,PM,M

8 COMMON NAME Common Jezebel

Local name Hartani

Scientific Name Delias eucharis (Drury)

Characters White and yellow with black stripes and orange-red

marginal spots which are edged white, and black border on both sides.

Status VC

Occurance S,PM,W

9 COMMON NAME Striped albatross

Local name Dhulkapas

Scientific Name Appias olferna

Characters Dusky white to yellowish with black or brown stripes.

Two forms are found (i) libythea & (ii) Olferna

Status C

Occurance Pm,w

10 COMMON NAME Small Salmon Arab

Local name

Scientific Name Colotis amata

Characters Hind wing with a band on costal margin extended to just

within the upper margin of the cell, covered with dense

black specialized scales. Fore wings, salmon pink, costa

black, covered with pinkish scales, apex and termen

broadly black with transverse series of pink spots

Status C

Occurance S,PM

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FAMILY: PAPILONIDAE

1 COMMON NAME Common Mime

Local name Khagra

Scientific Name Papilio Clytia (Linnaeus)

Characters This tail-less Swallowtail has two forms: Clytia and

Dissimilis, in both the sexes. The Clytia is dark brown

with two series of white spots at the edges of its wings.

Status C

Occurance S,W

2 COMMON NAME Common Rose

Local name Aalte

Scientific Name Pachliopta aristolochiae

Characters Large, glossy, black butterfly with two broad white bands

on the fore wings. The tailed hind wings have bright

crimson spots

Status Rare

Occurance PM,W

3 COMMON NAME Common Mormon

Local name Kalim

Scientific Name Papilio polytes (Linnaeus)

Characters Dark blackish-brown with a row of white spots along the

central region of the hind wing.

Status VC

Occurance S,M,PM,W

4 COMMON NAME Common Banded Peacock

Local Name Moural

Scientific Name Papilio crino

Characters A gorgeous green and blackish-brown swallowtail.

Status R

Occurance PM,W

5 COMMON NAME Tailed Jay

Local name Chaitak

Scientific Name Graphium agamemnon

Characters Black with apple-green spots and streaks on wings.

Status C

Occurance S,W

6 COMMON NAME Lime butterfly

Local name Ruru

Scientific Name Papilio demoleus Linnaeus

Characters Black and yellow butterfly with a slight tooth on hind

wings.

Status VC

Occurance S,M,PM,W

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FAMILY: NYMPHALIDAE

1 COMMON NAME Common Crow

Local name kaowa

Scientific Name Euploea core (Cramer)

Characters A brown butterfly with a complete row of marginal and

sub-marginal white spots.

Status VC

Occurance S,PM,W

2 COMMON NAME Brown King Crow/King Crow

Local name _______

Scientific Name Euploea klugii

Characters Both male and female are very variable in markings and

in the outline of the termen and dorsum ol the forewing.

Forewing dark-brown glossed with brilliant blue,

generally a spot at apex of cell, a small costal spot, two

short streaks beyond apex of cell. Hindwing brown,

glossed with blue in the middle, sub-terminal series of spots incomplete or absent.

Status NR

Occurance S, M,PM

3 Status Grey Pansy

Occurance Chandnari

Scientific Name Precis atlites (Linnaeus); Junonia atlites (Linnaeus)

Characters Creamish-grey with brown lines and a row of black spots

near the wing margin.

Status C

Occurance S,M,PM,W

4 COMMON NAME Peacock Pansy

Local name Nayan

Scientific Name Junonia almana (Linnaeus)

Characters Coppery yellow with peacock colour at the centre with yellow and black rings around it.

Status NR

Occurance PM,W

5 COMMON NAME Chocolate Pansy

Local name Kairi

Scientific Name Precis iphita (Cramer)

Characters Brown with darker bands.

Status C

Occurance PM,W

6 COMMON NAME Plain Tiger

Local name Tamot

Scientific Name Danaus chrysippus (Linnaeus)

Characters This is a tawny with black apex, body is black, spotted

with white. The hindwing has three small black spots

approximately at the centre.

Status VC

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252

Occurance S,PM,W

7 COMMON NAME Striped Tiger or Common Tiger

Local name Bagballa

Scientific Name Danaus genutia (Cramer)

Characters Orange with black stripes.

Status VC

Occurance S,M,PM,W

8 COMMON NAME Blue Tiger

Local name Himalkuchi

Scientific Name Tirumala limniace (Butler)

Characters Dark brown to black with blue markings.

Status C

Occurance S,PM,W

9 COMMON NAME Lemon Pansy

Local name Usum

Scientific Name Junonia lemonias (Linnaeus)

Characters Dark brown with eye-like markings with orange rings.

Status NR

Occurance W

10 COMMON NAME Chestnut Streaked Sailer

Local name Batasi

Scientific Name Neptis jumbah (Moore)

Characters Dark brown, with white horizontal lines.

Status VC

Occurance S,M,PM,W

11 COMMON NAME Common Leopard

Local name Chita

Scientific Name Phalanta phalantha (Drury)

Characters Yellow with black band spot.

Status C

Occurance PM,W

12 COMMON NAME Angled Castor

Local name Kanmorche

Scientific Name Ariadne ariadne (Linnaeus)

Characters Reddish brown with regular slender single lines

Status C

Occurance All months

13 COMMON NAME Great Eggfly

Local name Jamui

Scientific Name Hypolimnas bolina (Linnaeus)

Characters The iridescent, bluish white, egg shaped markings on the

upperwing surface make the male of this species a handsome insect.

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Status C

Occurance M,PM,W

14 COMMON NAME Tawny Coster

Local name Harinchara

Scientific Name Acraea violae (Fabricius)

Characters Tawny-orange, with black cell streaks and darkened

veins.

Status VC

Occurrence S,M,PM

15 COMMON NAME Common Baron

Local name Bhusunda

Scientific Name Euthalia aconthea (Cramer)

Characters The male is dark brown with a row of very small white

spots on the forewings. The female is pale brown with a

prominent white band on the forewings.In female

Upperside tawny, veins black.

Status VR

Occurrence S,PM

16 COMMON NAME Common Palm fly

Local name

Scientific Name Elymnias hypermnestra

Characters Males exhibit black colored upperside forewings with

small blue patches and reddish brown color on upperside

hindwings.

Status NR

Occurrence S,M

FAMILY: LYCAENIDAE

1

COMMON

NAME

Quaker

Local name Kardi

Scientific Name Neopithecops zalmora (Fruhstorfer)

Characters Upperside dark brown, with variable white patch on the disc, a

prominent black spot on underside of hind wings.

Status C

Occurance M,PM,W

2 COMMON

NAME

Gram Blue

Local name Joural

Scientific Name Euchrysops cnejus (Fabricius)

Characters The Gram Blue is a tailed, light grey butterfly marked with thin

lines and spots.

Status C

Occurrence S,M,PM

3 COMMON

NAME

Pale Grass Blue

Local name Dhupi

Scientific Name Pseudozizeeria maha (Kollar)

Characters Upperside dark blue, underside usually brown, occassionaly

brown, spots are rounded and dark.

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Status VC

Occurrence S,M,PM,W

4 COMMON

NAME

Plains cupid

Local name

Scientific Name Chilades pandava (Horsfield)

Characters The upperside of male is lavender-blue with dark borders.

Status C

Occurrence PM, W

5 COMMON

NAME

Forget-me-not

Local name Rit-tam

Scientific Name Catochrysops strabo (Fabricius)

Characters Pale blue. Under hindwing has two small black costal spots.

Status NR

Occurrence S,PM

6 COMMON

NAME

Lime Blue

Local name Tura

Scientific Name Chilades laius

Characters Light grey, tailless blue.

Status C

Occurrence S,M,PM

7 COMMON

NAME

Common Cerulean

Local name Surul

Scientific Name Jamides celeno (Cramer)

Characters Grey or brown with white lines or brown bands.

Status VR

Occurrence PM,W

8 COMMON

NAME

Long-banded silverline

Local name -----

Scientific Name Spindasis lohita (Horsfield)

Characters Creamy yellow to cinnamon red, silvery lines edged

prominently with black to red.

Status NR

Occurrence S,M

9 COMMON

NAME

Rounded/Striped Pierrot

Local name Tilkusi

Scientific Name Tarucus nara (Kol.)

Characters White with black spots and border; upper side violet blue with

narrow black border.

Status VR

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Occurrence S,PM

10 COMMON

NAME

Common Pierrot

Local name Tilaia

Scientific Name Castalius rosimon (Fabricius)

Characters Black spots and streaks on white wings

Status VC

Occurrence S,M,PM

11 COMMON

NAME

Ciliate Blue

Local name Ayandanri

Scientific Name Anthene emolus

Characters Upperside dark blue, Underside pale brown with many white

bands.

Status C

Occurrence S,M.

12 COMMON

NAME

Tiny grass blue

Local name

Scientific Name Zizula hylax (Fabricius)

Characters

Status VC

Occurrence S, M, PM, W

FAMILY: HESPERIIDAE

1 COMMON

NAME

Grass Demon

Local name

Scientific Name Udaspes folus

Characters It is black with a large white spot on the upperside of the hind

wing and several smaller whites spots on the forewing. The

underside of its wings is mostly white with brown edges and

spots.

Status NR

Occurrence M,PM

2 COMMON

NAME

Rice Swift

Local name Johur

Scientific Name Borbo cinnara (Wallace)

Characters Dark brown wings, white spots on the underside of the hind

wings.

Status C

Occurrence W,PM

VC- Very Common , C-Common, NR–Not Rare, R–Rare, VR-Very Rare

S-Summer, M-Monsoon PM-Post Monsoon, W-Winter

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Distribution of different families of butterflies in three study sites

Sl No Common Name Family SA-1 SA-2 SA-3

1 Mottled Emigrant PIERIDAE +++ +++++ +

2 Common Grass Yellow PIERIDAE +++ +++++ +++

3 Common Wanderer/ Indian

Wanderer

PIERIDAE +++ +++++ +

4 Common Gull PIERIDAE +++ +++++ +

5 Common Emigrant PIERIDAE ++ +++++ +

6 Psyche PIERIDAE +++ +++++ +

7 Pioneer or Cape White PIERIDAE +++ +++++ +

8 Common Jezebel PIERIDAE +++ ++++ +

9 Striped albatross PIERIDAE +++ ++++ +

10 Small Salmon Arab PIERIDAE - +++++ -

11 Common Mime PAPILIONIDAE +++ +++++ +

12 Common Rose PAPILIONIDAE +++ +++++ +

13 Common Mormon PAPILIONIDAE +++ +++++ +

14 Common Banded Peacock PAPILIONIDAE - + -

15 Tailed Jay PAPILIONIDAE +++ +++++ +++

16 Lime butterfly PAPILIONIDAE +++ +++++ +++

17 Common Crow NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ +

18 Brown King Crow/King Crow NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++ +

19 Grey Pansy NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ +

20 Peacock Pansy NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ +

21 Chocolate Pansy NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ +

22 Plain Tiger NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ +++

23 Striped Tiger or Common Tiger NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ +

24 Blue Tiger NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ +

25 Lemon Pansy NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ +++

26 Chestnut Streaked Sailer NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ -

27 Common Leopard NYMPHALIDAE + +++ -

28 Angled Castor NYMPHALIDAE + ++++ +

29 Great Eggfly NYMPHALIDAE +++ ++++ -

30 Tawny Coster NYMPHALIDAE + + +

31 Common Baron NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++++ +

32 Common Palm fly NYMPHALIDAE +++ +++ -

33 Quaker LYCAENIDAE +++ +++++ +++

34 Gram Blue LYCAENIDAE +++ +++++ +

35 Pale Grass Blue LYCAENIDAE +++ +++++ +

36 Plains cupid LYCAENIDAE +++ +++++ +

37 Forget-me-not LYCAENIDAE +++ +++++ +

38 Lime Blue LYCAENIDAE +++ +++++ +

39 Common Cerulean LYCAENIDAE +++ +++++ +

40 Long banded Silverline LYCAENIDAE +++ +++++ +

41 Rounded/Striped Pierrot LYCAENIDAE +++ +++ +

42 Common Pierrot LYCAENIDAE +++ +++++ +

43 Ciliate Blue LYCAENIDAE ++++ +++ -

44 Tiny grass blue LYCAENIDAE ++++ ++++ +++

45 Grass Demon HESPERIDAE + ++++ +

46 Rice Swift HESPERIDAE +++ +++++ -

SA-1= Monoharchak, SA-2= Baksispur SA-3= Contai college campus

+++=Moderately appeared ++++= Highly appeared += Less appeared - = Not appeared

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257

Result and Discussion

Butterflies are one of the marvelous creation

of nature. It also acts as an indicators of

ecological changes in their surroundings.

During study as well as sampling total forty

six species of butterflies are recorded from

three study sites and these belongs to the

five families namely Pieridae, Papilionidae,

Nymphalidae, Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae.

The diversity and abundance of species is

highly correlated with the availability of

food plants in the surroundings (Kunte

2000). Among the Family Peridae the

observed butterflies have strong migratory

habit and Common Wander is protected

under schedule II of Indian Wild

Life(Protection) Act,1972. The Mottled

Emigrant, Common Grass Yellow and

Common Emigrant were recorded as most

abundant species from three study sites). .

The family Papilionidae is the smallest

butterfly family and popularly called

Swallow tails. The most abundant species

recorded from the study sites was Lime

butterfly. Among the Family Nymphalidae

Common Crow, Plain Tiger, Common Tiger

and Lemon Pansy were the more diverse

butterflies. Occurrence of maximum number

of species in the family Nymphalidae could

be the result of high availability of food

plants in the study area. Lycaenidae are also

the largest families of butterflies along with

Nymphalidae but most of them were very

small. The Gram Blue and Lime Blue were

more abundant.The less abundant family

recorded were Hesperidae. Clark et al.,

2007, reported that increased human

activities were associated with decreased

butterfly species and claimed that the rich,

rare and specialized species were the most

affected. Therefore Conservation is hence

necessary to keep these rare species from

being pushed to extinction. The Wild Life

(Protection) Act 1972 has enough provisions

for conservation of butterflies. Under this

Act, around 120 species and sub-species of

butterflies and moths are in Schedule-I and

nearly 292 species and sub-species are in

Schedule-II. Not also legislation , but proper

effective steps in maintaining the wild life

habitat through continuous process of

awareness generation among the local

community, young generation is required.

Graphic Representation of Butterfly Diversity

Int.J.Curr.Res.Aca.Rev.2015; 3(6):246-258

258

Conclusion

Present study shows the occurrence of high

number of butterfly species in Contai and its

adjoining areas. . It was observed that, the

occurrence and distribution of butterflies

were closely associated with the availability

of its larval and adult host plants. It is also

said that the gradual destruction of natural

habitat induce to decline the butterflies

species in very recent.

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